Fordyce I D, Hunter D J
J R Coll Gen Pract. 1987 Mar;37(296):109-11.
Findings reported from a survey of 997 people aged 75 years and over living at home in a rural and an urban area showed that the two areas were similar in overall levels of support and in levels of perceived need. The rural area enjoyed rather more generous support from district nurses and health visitors than the urban area, a finding which challenges the widely-held view that rural areas suffer from lower levels of support and have higher levels of felt need. The few differences between the areas that did emerge were not necessarily a consequence of location; other explanations may be found in the operating styles of the services, and in the amount and type of informal support to be found in the two areas. Overall, the findings question the validity of a simple rural-urban dichotomy in studies of elderly people.
一项针对997名年龄在75岁及以上、居住在农村和城市地区家中的老人的调查结果显示，这两个地区在总体支持水平和感知需求水平方面相似。与城市地区相比，农村地区从地区护士和健康访视员那里获得的支持更为优厚，这一发现挑战了一种广泛持有的观点，即农村地区获得的支持水平较低且感到需求更高。两个地区之间确实出现的少数差异不一定是地理位置造成的；其他解释可能在于服务的运作方式，以及两个地区可获得的非正式支持的数量和类型。总体而言，这些发现质疑了在老年人研究中简单的城乡二分法的有效性。
